'Washington Post' journalists stage daylong strike under threat of job cuts
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Journalists at The Washington Post are making some news of their own today.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: What do we want?
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Fair pay.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: When do we want it?
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Now.
SHAPIRO: About 750 staffers are on a 24-hour strike, and they're asking readers not to look at the Post's site or pick up a newspaper. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik is covering this story. David, tell us what you're seeing as the strike plays out.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Well, just as we heard there, you know, people from newsrooms engaged in union activity. You'd be seeing a one-day strike, and that means that, yes, there are these protest lines. But many stories on The Washington Post websites have datelines that - yesterday, some of them, in fact, just minutes before midnight tonight or simply bylined Washington Post staff. That is, people pulled back their bylines where they're willing to do. And there was real anxiety within The Washington Post about being able to stockpile enough content to be able to put out there both in print and on the website today. A Washington Post section editor's memo to colleagues asked them to file stories on, quote, "anything that even whiffs of news," unquote, and they cited a need to hoard copy. Here is a direct quote from this editor. He said - or he or she said - this is the first time I have typed those - these words in my life. The bar is low, the editor wrote - and that memo first reported by Washingtonian magazine.
SHAPIRO: Tell us what's led these hundreds of Post employees to walk out.
FOLKENFLIK: Well, there are two things going on. They argue that the Washington Post Company is not only taking a hard line in negotiations but seeking to cut back the staff significantly. There's going to be a staff reduction of 10%. The Washington Post company has set a deadline for next week for voluntary buyouts of 240 people. The acting CEO, Patty Stonesifer, says that if not - there aren't enough takers, the company will lay people off with severance packages that aren't so good. And people inside the newsroom tell me that they're really kind of feeling as though things are being targeted that may not be the highest yield of immediate clicks. So something like local news, you know, already something under fire in so many newsrooms around the country, looks likely to take one of the biggest cuts. Here's a quote from Katie Mettler. She's a criminal justice reporter on the Post's metro desk.
KATIE METTLER: I chose to be a reporter on the local desk because I wanted to write about the people I live beside. I think that there is no kind of journalism more critical to the Washington Post's mission.
FOLKENFLIK: And I want to thank Kayla Hewitt, our colleague from WAMU, for interviewing Mettler and others today. You know, there's a real sense that there's something on the line.
SHAPIRO: David, what should we make of the fact that this storied paper, which is owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos of Amazon, is in such financial trouble?
FOLKENFLIK: That's right - and owned privately by Jeff Bezos, I might add. You know, he bought the paper for $250 million, but he's put in a lot of money since and is currently - although it was in - profitable until very recently, it's now hit annual losses of $100 million, its chief executive forced out earlier this year. You know, they're saying a guy like Bezos should be able to afford to ride this out and make more investments. What people at the Post say is we have to figure out a way to rightsize this. And this is happening against a backdrop of deep cuts throughout the industry. Earlier this week, Spotify, the audio streaming giant, announced layoffs of 17% of its workforce after previous layoffs earlier this year. And you've seen this happen at the Los Angeles Times, at digital upstarts like Vox and Vice and BuzzFeed, at NPR - 10% of our workforce earlier this year. You know, folks are looking up I-95 from The Washington Post at the New York Times, which seems to have struck gold with its digital paywalls. And they're wondering, what about us?
SHAPIRO: NPR's David Folkenflik. Thank you.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet.
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